Episode 49 The sword is unsheathed

The river beach in front of him was full of corpses of Qing soldiers, and the river water pushed blood foam, and the muddy beach was already soaked in a layer of red.

Everywhere there were charred corpses, charred barbed wire. The dying Qing soldiers in the crater were struggling and moaning.

Two or three kilometers to the left and right, there was no artillery fire. There were still a few machine guns firing, but they were no longer a threat. The artillery fire at Pukou has also stopped, and the river beach, which had been boiling just now, is now almost silent.

Assault boats on the surrounding river are crowding into this gap. The Qing soldiers arrived on the river beach in whole ship and intact, and jumped off the boat intact. There are more and more people on the river beach, and they rush inward almost unimpeded.

Occasionally, a few mines exploded, but they didn't care anymore. Compared to the killing field just now, now the portal is open.

……

"Conquer Nanjing, let the brothers live happily for ten days! …… As long as I am in the Forbidden City, the whole of Nanjing outside is all yours! ”

Every soldier's mind was filled with the thirst for revenge and the beast-desire. The emperor's words echoed in the minds of every Qing soldier at this moment.

They just thought that they would be able to enter Nanjing soon. After entering Nanjing, you can do whatever you want within ten days......

The entire river beach was filled with shouts of joy:

"Beat Nanjing, live happily for ten days! …… Lay down Nanjing, live happily for ten days! ……”

The huge steamers also approached one after another and began to unload the heavy equipment. The soldiers pumped their horses vigorously and dragged the anti-tank guns in the sand.

The sound of megaphones echoed everywhere on the beach:

"The 32nd Regiment Headquarters of the 423rd Division ......"

"The regiments have been restored to ......"

"The artillery regiment of the 56th division came to receive the shells......"

……

On the Pukou wharf, Emperor Guangwu stood straight outside the trench, holding a telescope, suppressing the trembling in his chest, and said softly:

"Good...... The morale of the brothers is high......"

The radio pager was placed aside, and the shouts of the soldiers at the scene were constantly transmitted, "Fight Nanjing, live happily for ten days." The surrounding generals listened to the wild cries and looked at the emperor, their faces were a little embarrassed.

"Your Majesty," Fucha-Yonggui, who had just become the commander of the Eighth Army, said with a smile, "Brothers have entered Nanjing, is it a good ...... to restrain them?"

Guangwu was still holding the binoculars and said expressionlessly:

"No, you don't. This is what I promise to my brethren. ”

“…… The Emperor Shengming. ”

Yonggui stepped back and said nothing.

Another major general's staff officer boldly played:

"Your Majesty...... We have a seat in the League of Nations, so it doesn't seem to be good for ......"

Guangwu took off the binoculars and turned his face to stare at him.

The major general's staff officer turned white, let out a "snort", lowered his head and broke out in a cold sweat. Yonggui hurriedly reprimanded:

"The emperor's golden mouth, what nonsense are you talking about......"

Guangwu sneered:

"League of Nations? Geneva? Hehe! Do you know what is in front of us? …… That's half of the Gangnam! Half of China! That is the unfinished business of the ancestors of the Qing Dynasty for three hundred years! …… Compared to this, what is the League of Nations? What is Geneva? ”

He pointed to his arm:

"On the other side of the Yangtze River, there are millions of square kilometers of land! It's the richest place in the country! Once we get our hands on it, we will have several times the coastline and hundreds of good harbors in the Qing Dynasty! More than ten times stronger shipbuilding industry! From Guangdong to the south, you can go straight to the ocean! The world's largest non-ferrous metal deposit! What do you rely on to make armor and armor-piercing shells? By tungsten! How much tungsten does Nanming have? Eighty percent of the planet!

“…… Do you understand? Once the Southern Ming Dynasty is taken and China is reunified, we can compete with the Soviet Union on land and Japan at sea! We are the number one power in the Eastern Hemisphere! …… Compared to all this, what is the League of Nations? Yes? What is Geneva? Yes? ”

Several generals listened dumbly, as if they were infected. They shouted at the same time:

"The Emperor Shengming!"

……

The No. 6 ammunition depot at Dinghuaimen exploded, the power system was completely destroyed, and the river embankment was cracked, the underground fortifications more than 1,000 meters long were completely flooded, and the gap in the defense line was as long as 3 kilometers.

There was no electricity at all within three kilometers. The cannon could not be loaded, the armored turret could not be lifted and rotated, the fortifications could not be ventilated or illuminated, it was filled with gunpowder smoke and carbon dioxide after it had been burned, and it was pitch black.

In many underground tunnels, the concrete walls are painted with slogans from the Empress's speeches:

"Our fortifications are intact and still strong!"

"Our warriors are waiting for the day, looking forward to repaying the blood debt from the Qing captives! Our machine guns are ready to go, waiting to harvest the heads of the captives again! ”

But there was no one left, only debris all over the floor.

Behind many fortifications there were Qing soldiers. They carried flamethrowers and grenades, and took down one fortification after another with little difficulty.

Now the defenders on both sides of the gap are also coaxing that "the defense line is broken, the defense line is broken", and the people are panicking, and no one has the heart to resist at all. Obviously, there was no water or power outage here, but a large number of panicked people had already begun to panic, and many soldiers in the machine gun fort threw down their guns and ran back.

More than 30 kilometers of the Nanjing defense line faced a total collapse.

The troops on these defensive lines are all "fortress divisions" specially trained by the Southern Ming Dynasty for a long time, which are different from those of the field troops. They were mainly trained as soldiers who fought on the basis of strong fortifications, and each was a good gunner, observer, machine gunner, and could be replaced by each other. Even a service soldier or communications soldier can become a qualified machine gunner and continue shooting after the main shooter of the machine gun is killed. But they all knew very well in their hearts that once faced with a hand-to-hand encounter, they were by no means opponents of the enemy's field soldiers.

The rout began to spread from the three-kilometer gap in Dinghuaimen to both sides, and soon the gap expanded to five kilometers and six kilometers......

The riverside fortification area is only a few hundred meters away from the Nanjing city wall, and now a large number of defenders are being chased by the Qing soldiers, desperately climbing over the collapsed city wall and running into the city. The slow runner was caught up by the Qing soldiers, and he was directly stabbed to death with a bayonet.

Behind the river, one fortress after another was planted with the blue dragon flag on a yellow background of the Qing Dynasty......

The Ming army was in chaos, and the Qing army was also in chaos. The chaotic Qing army pursued the chaotic Ming army, all the way into the city wall of Nanjing, and entered the urban area around Dinghuai Gate.

Originally, the Qinhuai River was used as a moat, which surrounded the city wall of Nanjing, but now the city wall has collapsed, and the narrow Qinhuai River is full of city brick ruins.

There were sporadic defenders who relied on the ruins of the city walls and put up machine guns to resist, but they were soon drowned in the explosion of Qing mortars.

Entering the urban area of Nanjing, the Qing soldiers dispersed and no longer pursued the Ming army defenders. The legendary "Flower Flower Jinling" was finally unfolded in front of them. Each of the Qing soldiers screamed excitedly, privately searching for their target:

Shops, mansions, women's ......

It is a pity that the east side of the city of Nanjing, due to the continuous bombardment, is already in ruins. They couldn't find what they wanted, and with the commander following up, the scattered Qing soldiers began to restore their formation as a team, advancing along Gupinggang Street and Shuizuogang Street towards the city.

Suddenly, the Qing soldiers at the front found that behind the ruins in the distance, the Ming army that had fled in embarrassment just now had red eyes and shouted to fight back.

"Machine gun ready! …… Shoot! ”

The Qing soldiers scattered in formation, and they all lay down and opened fire, and a heavy machine gun was dragged forward, and the machine gun team was in position and began to fire "da-da".

The ruined Ming army in front of him howled, and rushed straight over with bayonets, and he couldn't see that he was still fleeing just now.

After the Qing army released two rounds of rifles, they stood up and rushed forward with shouts and began hand-to-hand combat. Soon, these Ming fortress soldiers fell under the bayonets, and the remaining half fled in confusion.

A Qing army company commander took off his steel helmet, touched his scalp, laughed, and waved his hand:

"Forward!"

But he was immediately surprised to see that the Ming army that had fled back frantically rushed back from behind the ruins for the second time, screaming in grief and indignation, and gritting their teeth and pounced.

"Huh?" The company commander of the Qing army hurriedly put on his steel helmet and couldn't believe his eyes, "What's wrong with them?" Why do you feel like crazy? ”

He squinted at the pile of rubble in front of him. It's probably a collapsed two-story building, and it's just about to seal off the street.

Amid the shouts and explosions around him, he faintly discerned a shrill sound, intermittent, just behind the pile of rubble. There seems to be the sound of a megaphone.

Could it be that Nanming's gendarmerie is coming? …… No, on the defensive line just now, didn't the Nanming gendarmes also flee! Now that it has entered the city, it stands to reason that the hardest battle has passed, and now it should be the time for Nanming to collapse.

The harsh sound got closer and closer, and the overhead began to "swish".

Bullet! That's machine gunfire!

The company commander of the Qing army was taken aback: the sound of the machine gun should be "da-da-da", why is this so ugly, like sawing wood?

As the "sawing of wood" got closer and more deafening, the sound of some kind of engine was heard. There was also the sound of "creaking" and the crushing of bricks and tiles.

The remnants of the Ming army in front of them were wiped out again. The surrounding Qing soldiers were holding cloth guns, panting heavily, staring at the pile of rubble more than ten meters away, and looking at each other, they all had a sense of foreboding.

The strange machine-gun sound on the opposite side stopped, and the sound of engines and loudspeakers became clear:

“…… We are the Imperial People's Guard...... Order the defenders of the defensive line to stop retreating and immediately return to the defensive line...... I command you not to take a step back, or you will be killed...... We are the Imperial People's Guard...... I command you ......"

Immediately afterwards, there was a "boom", and a piece of dust fell on top of the ruins, and dust flew up. A tank roared to the top of the pile of rubble, and stopped there, condescendingly, two machine guns spitting tongues of fire. On the front armor, on the bright yellow logo of the People's Guard, is a piercing black sword.

The Qing army below instantly lay down a corpse.

At the top of the turret, a commander in black uniform commanded loudly with a walkie-talkie, and then the turret turned, and the 47mm barrel was lowered, slowly aiming.

There was a loud bang, the cannon barrel spit out fireworks, and the Qing army company commander and two Qing soldiers who could not escape fell to the ground with their heads covered.

The tank spewed out green smoke and swooped down from the top of the rubble, machine-gun fire rushing forward. Immediately shouted from behind the ruins, and hundreds of blocked defenders of the line followed the tanks, guns in the direction of the abandoned line.